Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Naruto manga serialization, the spin-off premiered at the 2009 Jump Festa Anime Tour. It used the same CGI graphics as featured in the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm game.
Although the OVA's story takes place as early as Naruto's episode 19, it also contains a scene set in between two of Naruto: Shippuden's arcs: the end of "Fated Battle Between Brothers" and the beginning of "Five Kage Summit," or from episodes 144 to 197 respectively.